Get rid of all the judges!

The EU might take Hungary to court over breaching EU law. The allegations include the independence of the central bank (or lack thereof), the retirement age of judges and the data protection. Hungary, little amused, has one month to respond to the allegations. After that period, it could be sued in the European Court of Justice. If the retirement age of judges would be reduced to 62 [down from 70], as proposed, 274 judges would find themselves out of work. read article

The IMF is discussing a $1tn (TRILLION) expansion, predominantly funded by the BRIC and OPEC countries and Japan. The IMF currently holds $385bn. The eurozone (Germany…) has already agreed to supply $150bn, which they found in some forgotten bank account. read article

Just now from Zero Hedge: this is not just raising money for the sake of having more, there might be a 2-year financing gap. read article

Otherwise, Wikipedia and Reddit are down today (I know exactly three people who care about the latter) to protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), Fitch has downgraded Italy [and will downgrade 6 other countries shortly], and overnight deposits in the European Central bank rose by another €30bn last night, totaling €528.2bn.Goldman Sachs is due to announce its Q4 earnings any minute now, after it had reported losses in Q3 for only the second time in the firm’s [public] existence.

SOPA [and this] is stirring a whole lot of debate about the internet, its use and its users. Paul Krugman supports blogging as a tool for debate and FastCompany’s Co.Design supplies us with a map of submarine cables.